to think that modern life is utter shite

[OfCourse]

EVERYTHING is expensive; food, cars, houses, utilities, travel for work and the service is crap.

ANY GOVERNMENT PROVIDED SERVICE IS FUCKED; education, NHS, social welfare, police.

None of the above are in any particular order. Is it me? Am I just having a bad day?

SELL ME MODERN LIFE

Supermarkets are full of genetically engineered fruit and veg to make them pretty and sugar

I'm not sure it is the prevailing attitude now Ass. That's over. Sanctions and punitive treatment for the unemployed are the order of the day.

Everyone posting about medical and technical wonders, about huge advantages for MC and intelligent women, about the progress of the last century in general are, of course, quite right.

However, that's all rather different from the economic crisis of the C21st that the OP is highlighting. And from the deterioration in public services that accompanies that.

I had a minor op in our local hospital a few days ago.

I was very grateful for the anaesthetic, the infection-control, the skilled medical staff, the kind nurse who held my hand when I was having a wobble, the painkillers, the bus which stopped right outside the door of the hospital and took me to within a 2 minute walk from my door.

I am grateful that I can take a few days off from work to recover without worrying about losing my job. And should I develop a post-op infection I will be very grateful for the antibiotics.

I would not want to think how all that would have been different 100 years ago.

DP loves the 70s, happiest days of his childhood. But it wasn't that great - I'm 6 yrs older. We found an old 70s Woolworths ad on YT, a radio alarm clock for £19.99, kitchen table and chairs £99, a hairdryer £15. I always assumed that everything was so much cheaper but it wasn't. And we watched Fanny Craddock does Christmas on Sky a few days ago. Getting up at 6 to start the roast, boiling your pudding for 11 hours. We have it so much easier in so many ways.

I do find it sad that we are contactable all the time through email, apps, texts, so we can never really switch off. And that some of my happiest memories of rainy days were either reading on my bed or watching old B&W films. Children don't seem to get the chill out times we did.

That's the problem though, when you have so much you feel entitled to expect much more

Absolutely agree with this. In general, human nature is greedy. Once one level of needs is achieved it's assumed it's a right to have that as a matter of course, and the next level is sought. And so on.

When the ambulance finally comes to pick you up......after you've laid in the street being either filmed on smartphones or have had people stepping over you, you get to lie for hours in an ambulance outside A&E due to the queues

If you're really lucky, you don't die in that ambulance. If you have the misfortune of being admitted to a hospital ward, you get to lie in your own wastes whilst desperately trying to get a drink of mouldy water that the previous occupant left.

If you successfully make it through your surgery/treatment, you still have the spectre of MRSA hovering over your bed.

YABVVVU.

Life isn't perfect, but we have so much more than the majority of people around the world. To name a few things, housing, heating, modern medicine, plenty of food, clean water, free schools, safe streets, civil order.

Go back to pretty much any point in history in the uk and you would have been worse off.

Have you ever actually visited a poor country? Is crazy to compare our lives to theirs.

When did I compare a poor country to ours?

Hiddenhome, I have experience of all of your post. Twenty years ago I was given an A4 photocopy at Guy's hospital about MRSA when I went to visit my Dad who had contracted it.

YABU
The NHS is great and the staff amazing. I can call up my doctor's surgery for myself or family members at 9 in the morning, a triage nurse will call back and if I am in need of an appointment will be given one that morning and am often back home with medication by 11 a.m. How is that not good?
Internet is brilliant I feel real lucky to be alive now and have access to it.

There is more opportunity than ever to travel. It wasn't that long ago that almost on one went abroad.
I don't think food is expensive in real times than it has been in the past. It just stayed low for a long time.
Clothes and electrical goods are definitely cheaper.
Housing is expensive but more people can buy now compared to 50 years ago.

You didn't, sorry,I phrased that badly. I meant, the difference between our lives and theirs is crazy.

Indeed.

We're also onto our third primary school for ds2 and the second secondary school for ds1 due to bullying and other issues at the previous schools. They're happily settled now, but it's been a right struggle.

I would gladly pay higher taxes if it meant that health and education were properly managed and delivered.

Food, clothes, electrical goods etc have never been cheaper relatively

Things that are expensive these days are houses, education and childcare.

And that's because we can't enslave lots of Asians to do these things for us!

Think OP is getting a hard time. I presume she's comparing now with recent history. And not comparing us with others in countries with desperate poverty.

Of course it depends on your personal circumstance and family history etc but going by what I know and what my parents say etc things are harder now. Young adults will be the first generation in recent history to not do as well as their parents

Benefits are less for the poorer - simply haven't kept up with cost of living.

People work longer hours, and many are expected to be on call 24/7

Childcare costs are astronomical

Normal for rents to go up 5-10% a year and salaries are static. Same with goods and services.

House prices have never been higher.

Young couples working hard to buy a flat are outbid by people given money who don't need to worry about working hard

Big youth unemployment

The poor working for the rich for less than minimum wage on 'workfare'

Rich paying poor minimum wage which isn't enough to live on, then rich charging high rents, so poor have to get housing benefit not paid for by tax dodging rich

You can't earn money on your savings if you're lucky enough to have any. In fact most middle class people I know struggle, and don't save.

Pension schemes are worse than they were a few years ago.

What will the retirement age be for today's 20 year olds?

Work rights and benefits are being removed.

The country is being run by people who just don't give a shit about you.

And they're selling off the nhs to their rich mates

It's ok to be pissed off about these things while still appreciate how relatively lucky we are in the would.

The NHS is great and the staff amazing. I can call up my doctor's surgery for myself or family members at 9 in the morning, a triage nurse will call back and if I am in need of an appointment will be given one that morning and am often back home with medication by 11 a.m. How is that not good?

Where do you live!?

It takes days/weeks to be seen here.

Yanbu. Life is definitely more stressful than it used to be. The necessity of having to have 2 wages coming in (when before just one was enough) therefore today's woman has had her workload doubled. I remember when my dm went out working years ago it was what they used to call "pin money".... her wage wasn't necessary for the running of the home but it was her own personal bit of money to do what she wanted with. Eventually all these additional wages that were going into homes were counted and equality for women in the workplace led to both the man and the woman's income being lumped together and assessed as one joint income. Years ago all the woman wanted was to be able to go out to work and have equality with men in the workplace. Unfortunately this has led to the situation we have today where they no longer have a choice, they have to go out to work because the cost of living is now structured around two incomes coming into a house. It's just so wrong.

Better equality and redistribution of wealth would be better for everyone everywhere.

It's ok to be pissed off about these things while still appreciate how relatively lucky we are in the would.

Well said bookcase.

And the piety about Asia etc is all very well, but what is really shocking is that our own domestic inequality gap is widening at an alarming rate. A baby born to uneducated parents on a sink estate in London has awful life chances now.

I think that modern life is indeed better but perhaps a better question to ask is 'Is modern life in the UK better for this current generation than their parents generation'.

The answer is probably not, this generation is struggling with astronomical housing costs, rising cost of higher education, global competition for jobs, job stagnation, erosion of the NHS, less of a welfare cushion. I had free higher education and managed to become a property owner a decade ago but if I was in my 20's now i'd perhaps feel cheated that my generation wasn't having it as good as those a couple of decades ago.

My son had bronchiolitus at 6 months. He has had 8 inpatient hospital visits this year (2014) alone for asthma including a week in ICU.

Without being melodramatic he would be dead without modern medicine and hospitals. It's a thought that chills my blood.

Yab totally u for this reason alone.

I've been off-grid in a Welsh cottage (extended family tends to live in remote places) and elsewhere.

I like being able to flick a switch for instant light, rather than faff about filling oil lamps and making sure candles are not near curtains, in case there's a sudden draught.

I like being able to turn on a tap for instant, potable water. Fetching water is not fun. Purifying water so it's clean enough to drink is not fun. It's hard labour and time-consuming and has to be done daily. (Although fresh water shrimps in the bath did delight me as a child.)

Quite like double glazing and central heating, if it means I don't have ice on the inside of the window when I wake up.

It might all cost money, but it definitely makes like easier.

DS isn't quite 2 btw

Oh dear....

One of the choices modern life surely also gives you is the ability to simplify your life if you wish?

What is it you actually DO want?

The necessity of having to have 2 wages coming in (when before just one was enough) therefore today's woman has had her workload doubled.

Actually one thing I value hugely is the expectation that I do not do the housework and cooking on account of having a vagina.

I drove through the McDonalds drive through a few days ago and was in and out in less than 90 seconds, owing not only to the general fastness of their food but the contactless payment window.

I had free higher education

3% in the 1950s.

12% in the 1980s.

about 40% now.

It's easy to say it was better when you're one of the fortunate ones. The people that didn't get that higher education might not agree.